Poor people languish on the garage roof of Charity Hospital. Many are dying. As they fight for breath for there are no ventilators, completely exhausted doctors blow air into a bag and then push it into the patients' mouths. The fear is so awful the tears don't even come. They have been told they will be the first evacuated. A surge of hope runs through this infinitely sad group as helicopters beat the air. There are 200 of these people. There were more but they are now dead....stacked in stairways.

These dispossessed stare unbelieveably at a scene that may be their last living memory. The helicopters are evacuating Tulane Medical Center. By the end of the day, all personnel and sick people are gone. There is no chariry for Charity. No one comes.

Tulane is a private hospital.

Charity is the largest public hospital in New Orleans. It's where the poor and uninsured are accepted.

Elsewhere, police stations are under seige. Gangs have guns and no guts as they snipe in the dark.

Why isn't there martial law and a curfew with troops keeping order? Don't tell me that the richest country in the world dosn't have boats that can navigate flood waters. If CNN and the rest can get there, why not the National Guard.

God, do you think it just might be because we're spread too thin fighting a totally useless war killing our children? It's time to take care of our own.

These people don't need photo ops and soft words from speech writers. They need a government of compassion without the spin. They need an open heart for their open hands.

This is America. Somehow we managed to find some serenity after 9/11 because there was strength in sharing the horror. Response was amazing and rapid.

Thousands of people are probably dead from Katrina and who knows how many hundreds of thousands will never be the same.

It is disgusting, despicable, and morally reprehensible the way these human beings are being allowed to suffer in their own juices.

And it's there for all of us (and the entire world)to see in digital clarity; to bear witness that those we placed faith in are not worthy.